Review: J W Jones, The Tunnels

The Tunnels and CRH Promotions have five must see gigs during April and the first was a night of blues. The Will Edmunds Band opened proceedings with a decent covers based set, clean lead guitar with a funky rhythm section and plenty of soulful keys to flesh out the sound. People Say hit a nice funky groove and Crossroads Blues summoned up the ghost of Robert Johnson via Cream; and a good mix meant the band had a great sound. They’re a capable outfit – but  Edmunds seemed to just be holding back a little with his playing; it would have been splendid to hear him really cut loose and wail, and it would be even better to hear him doing so with some originals as the band have the ability to make it happen.

Canada has exported some exceptional outfits over the past few months (yep, I am referring to Lindi Ortega and Bros Landreth) and the latest arrival is J W Jones, a dapper guitar slinging fella some eight albums into his career and on his first UK tour. There’s a plethora of outfits on the circuit belting out some decent music along the spectrum from Rory Gallagher to Stevie Ray Vaughan so it’s pleasing to report that JW is delving back in to the genre and delivering a potted history of the blues as they were during the fifties and sixties before the mutation into blues rock. So over the course of a ninety odd minute set we had cuts that tipped their hat to rock n roll inflected big band blues, electric Chicago sounds and even managed to squeeze in some surf licks.

The other thing that differentiates JW is the showmanship on display, so rather than grimacing and gurning as he peeled off the solos and cranked out the riffs there was plenty of stylish shape throwing and classy postures straight out of the Chess school of performing. Not content with looking the part there was plenty of old school stage craft including an instrument swap around that gave bass player Laura Greenberg the chance to show that as well as being an exceptionally fluid bass player she can play a mean guitar; and allowed drummer Matt Lapensee chance to hop on the bass; all whist JW held down the beat from behind the kit. Oh, and not to mention all three managed to be playing a single guitar at one stage.

An off the cuff remark about the lack of dancing at British shows (apparently the Geordies didn’t get their groove on until the third encore) led to a bevy of Desperados fuelled ladies storming the front of the stage and attempting to prove you can twerk to the blues. The eagle-eyed JW didn’t miss this display of vaguely coordinated shimmying and proceeded to serenade one of the ladies concerned in a most unusual manner that brought the house down. In the 21^st century a video paints a thousand word so have a gander:

A massive medley in the final song of the set gave JW the chance to tantalise the crowd with a selection of classic blues riffs…such as the themes to Batman & James Bond; Day Tripper, Satisfaction, Wipe Out and more (of course we’d already had that classic deep Delta cut The Flintstones early in the set). A double edges sword though as it left one humming those classic riffs rather than any of the originals – the one thing the set lacked, a riff that took the crowd off at the knees and rammed in an earworm. That said a refreshingly entertaining set guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Pix: Doug Bearne

Video: David Charles Rohan